Psalm 44–49

Psalm 44

To the Chief Musician. A Contemplation Of the Sons of Korah.

¹We have heard with our ears, O God, ^bOur fathers have told us,

The deeds You did in their days,

In days of old:

^2cYou drove out the ²nations with Your hand,

But them You planted;

You afflicted the peoples, and cast them out.

³For ^dthey did not gain possession of the land by their own sword,

Nor did their own arm save them;

But it was Your right hand, Your arm, and the light of Your countenance,

^eBecause You favored them.

^4fYou are my King, ³O God;

⁴Command victories for Jacob.

⁵Through You ^gwe will push down our enemies;

Through Your name we will trample those who rise up against us.

⁶For ^hI will not trust in my bow,

Nor shall my sword save me.

⁷But You have saved us from our enemies,

And have put to shame those who hated us.

⁸ⁱIn God we boast all day long,

And praise Your name forever.

Selah

⁹But ^jYou have cast us off and put us to shame,

And You do not go out with our armies.

¹⁰You make us ^kturn back from the enemy,

And those who hate us have taken ⁵spoil for themselves.

^11lYou have given us up like sheep intended for food,

And have ^mscattered us among the nations.

¹²ⁿYou sell Your people for next to nothing,

And are not enriched by selling them.

^13oYou make us a reproach to our neighbors,

A scorn and a derision to those all around us.

^14pYou make us a byword among the nations,

^qA shaking of the head among the peoples.

¹⁵My dishonor is continually before me,

And the shame of my face has covered me,

¹⁶Because of the voice of him who reproaches and reviles,

^rBecause of the enemy and the avenger.

^17sAll this has come upon us;

But we have not forgotten You,

Nor have we dealt falsely with Your covenant.

¹⁸Our heart has not turned back,

^tNor have our steps departed from Your way;

¹⁹But You have severely broken us in ^uthe place of jackals,

And covered us ^vwith the shadow of death.

²⁰If we had forgotten the name of our God,

Or ^wstretched ⁶out our hands to a foreign god,

^21xWould not God search this out?

For He knows the secrets of the heart.

^22yYet for Your sake we are killed all day long;

We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.

^23zAwake! Why do You sleep, O Lord?

Arise! Do not cast us off forever.

^24aWhy do You hide Your face,

And forget our affliction and our oppression?

²⁵For ^bour soul is bowed down to the ⁷dust;

Our body clings to the ground.

²⁶Arise for our help,

And redeem us for Your mercies’ sake.

Psalm 45

To the Chief Musician. Set to Contemplation of the Sons of Korah. A Song of Love.

¹My heart is overflowing with a good theme;

I recite my composition concerning the King;

My tongue is the pen of a ³ready writer.

²You are fairer than the sons of men;

^bGrace is poured upon Your lips;

Therefore God has blessed You forever.

³⁴Gird Your ^csword upon Your thigh, ^dO Mighty One,

With Your ^eglory and Your majesty.

^4fAnd in Your majesty ride prosperously because of truth, humility, and righteousness;

And Your right hand shall teach You awesome things.

⁵Your arrows are sharp in the heart of the King’s enemies;

The peoples fall under You.

^6gYour throne, O God, is forever and ever;

A ^hscepter of righteousness is the scepter of Your kingdom.

⁷You love righteousness and hate wickedness;

Therefore God, Your God, has ⁱanointed You

With the oil of ^jgladness more than Your companions.

⁸All Your garments are ^kscented with myrrh and aloes and cassia,

Out of the ivory palaces, by which they have made You glad.

^9lKings’ daughters are among Your honorable women;

^mAt Your right hand stands the queen in gold from Ophir.

¹⁰Listen, O daughter,

Consider and incline your ear;

ⁿForget your own people also, and your father’s house;

¹¹So the King will greatly desire your beauty;

^oBecause He is your Lord, worship Him.

¹²And the daughter of Tyre will come with a gift;

^pThe rich among the people will seek your favor.

¹³The royal daughter is all glorious within the palace;

Her clothing is woven with gold.

^14qShe shall be brought to the King in robes of many colors;

The virgins, her companions who follow her, shall be brought to You.

¹⁵With gladness and rejoicing they shall be brought;

They shall enter the King’s palace.

¹⁶Instead of Your fathers shall be Your sons,

^rWhom You shall make princes in all the earth.

^17sI will make Your name to be remembered in all generations;

Therefore the people shall praise You forever and ever.

Psalm 46

To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of the Sons of Korah. A Song For Alamoth.

¹God is our ^brefuge and strength, ^cA ¹very present help in trouble.

²Therefore we will not fear,

Even though the earth be removed,

And though the mountains be carried into the ²midst of the sea;

^3dThough its waters roar and be troubled,

Though the mountains shake with its swelling.

Selah

⁴There is a ^eriver whose streams shall make glad the ^fcity of God,

The holy place of the ³tabernacle of the Most High.

⁵God is ^gin the midst of her, she shall not be ⁴moved;

God shall help her, just ⁵at the break of dawn.

^6hThe nations raged, the kingdoms were moved;

He uttered His voice, the earth melted.

⁷The ⁱLord of hosts is with us;

The God of Jacob is our refuge.

Selah

⁸Come, behold the works of the Lord,

Who has made desolations in the earth.

^9jHe makes wars cease to the end of the earth;

^kHe breaks the bow and cuts the spear in two;

^lHe burns the chariot in the fire.

¹⁰Be still, and know that I am God;

^mI will be exalted among the nations,

I will be exalted in the earth!

¹¹The Lord of hosts is with us;

The God of Jacob is our refuge.

Selah

Psalm 47

To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of the Sons of Korah.

¹Oh, clap your hands, all you peoples!

Shout to God with the voice of triumph!

²For the Lord Most High is awesome;

He is a great ^aKing over all the earth.

^3bHe will subdue the peoples under us,

And the nations under our feet.

⁴He will choose our ^cinheritance for us,

The excellence of Jacob whom He loves.

Selah

^5dGod has gone up with a shout,

The Lord with the sound of a trumpet.

⁶Sing praises to God, sing praises!

Sing praises to our King, sing praises!

^7eFor God is the King of all the earth;

^fSing praises with understanding.

^8gGod reigns over the nations;

God ^hsits on His ⁱholy throne.

⁹The princes of the people have gathered together,

^jThe people of the God of Abraham.

^kFor the shields of the earth belong to God;

He is greatly exalted.

Psalm 48

A Song. A Psalm of the Sons of Korah.

¹Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised

In the ^acity of our God,

In His holy mountain.

^2bBeautiful in ¹elevation,

The joy of the whole earth,

Is Mount Zion on the sides of the north,

The city of the great King.

³God is in her palaces;

He is known as her refuge.

⁴For behold, ^cthe kings assembled,

They passed by together.

⁵They saw it, and so they marveled;

They were troubled, they hastened away.

⁶Fear ^dtook hold of them there,

And pain, as of a woman in birth pangs,

⁷As when You break the ^eships of Tarshish

With an east wind.

⁸As we have heard,

So we have seen

In the city of the Lord of hosts,

In the city of our God:

God will ^festablish it forever.

Selah

⁹We have thought, O God, on ^gYour lovingkindness,

In the midst of Your temple.

¹⁰According to ^hYour name, O God,

So is Your praise to the ends of the earth;

Your right hand is full of righteousness.

¹¹Let Mount Zion rejoice,

Let the daughters of Judah be glad,

Because of Your judgments.

¹²Walk about Zion,

And go all around her.

Count her towers;

¹³Mark well her bulwarks;

Consider her palaces;

That you may ⁱtell it to the generation following.

¹⁴For this is God,

Our God forever and ever;

^jHe will be our guide

²Even to death.

Psalm 49

To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of the Sons of Korah.

¹Hear this, all peoples; Give ear, all inhabitants of the world,

²Both low and high,

Rich and poor together.

³My mouth shall speak wisdom,

And the meditation of my heart shall give understanding.

⁴I will incline my ear to a proverb;

I will disclose my ¹dark saying on the harp.

⁵Why should I fear in the days of evil,

When the iniquity at my heels surrounds me?

⁶Those who ^atrust in their wealth

And boast in the multitude of their riches,

⁷None of them can by any means redeem his brother,

Nor ^bgive to God a ransom for him—

⁸For ^cthe redemption of their souls is costly,

And it shall cease forever—

⁹That he should continue to live eternally,

And ^dnot ²see the Pit.

¹⁰For he sees wise men die;

Likewise the fool and the senseless person perish,

And leave their wealth to others.

¹¹³Their inner thought is that their houses will last forever,

Their dwelling places to all generations;

They ^ecall their lands after their own names.

¹²Nevertheless man, though in honor, does not ⁴remain;

He is like the beasts that perish.

¹³This is the way of those who are ^ffoolish,

And of their posterity who approve their sayings.

Selah

¹⁴Like sheep they are laid in the grave;

Death shall feed on them;

^gThe upright shall have dominion over them in the morning;

^hAnd their beauty shall be consumed in ⁵the grave, far from their dwelling.

¹⁵But God ⁱwill redeem my soul from the power of ⁶the grave,

For He shall ^jreceive me.

Selah

¹⁶Do not be afraid when one becomes rich,

When the glory of his house is increased;

¹⁷For when he dies he shall carry nothing away;

His glory shall not descend after him.

¹⁸Though while he lives ^khe blesses himself

(For men will praise you when you do well for yourself),

¹⁹He shall go to the generation of his fathers;

They shall never see ^llight. ⁷

²⁰A man who is in honor, yet does not understand,

^mIs like the beasts that perish.